Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Last week, I expressed concern that Joe Mauer was more hurt than he or the team was letting on, and that various bumps and bruises were largely responsible for his disappointing numbers over the first few months of the season.

His recent playing time patterns have only helped confirm those fears. Since I posted my column about Mauer last Thursday, he has caught only three of the Twins' seven games. Twice he has sat out, and twice he has served as designated hitter. That's not the type of usage we're accustomed to seeing for the former MVP, who -- when healthy -- is typically behind the plate for the vast majority of the Twins' games.

To be clear, giving Mauer a break from time to time is necessary. And I don't mind using him in the DH spot on occasion. But there seems to be a perception that the Twins aren't hurting themselves too much by feeding more and more starts to Drew Butera. That's just not the case.

Butera is arguably (maybe not even arguably) the worst hitter in all of the major leagues. After posting a miserable .560 OPS as a 25-year-old in Triple-A last year, he has gone on to hit .192/.211/.301 for the Twins this year, with five extra-base hits and one walk in 83 plate appearances. An out-making machine with minimal power, Butera is an enormous liability whose offensive production roughly mirrors what one would expect from a pitcher in the National League. When he's starting and Mauer's at DH, as was the case last night, it means that the Twins are replacing Jim Thome or Jason Kubel with Butera in the lineup. There are no words to fully describe the size of this drop-off.

The Twins' stated position for the increased playing time for Butera is that the team's starters like pitching to him, especially Carl Pavano. There are indications that Butera could even serve as Pavano's personal catcher for the remainder of the season. I don't think I buy the notion.

While it's true that Pavano has performed well over his last few starts with Butera behind the plate, and also true that Pavano was roughed up the last time he pitched to Mauer, it's important to point out that the ugly start came in Toronto against the power-laden Blue Jays lineup. That's about as unfavorable of a match-up as you can find for Carl Pavano, and I'm thinking it's more largely responsible for the mustachioed hurler's struggles than who was receiving the pitches. Especially when you consider that Pavano's two strong starts before the Toronto shellacking -- an outing against the Rays in which he allowed two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings and a complete game shutout against the Mets in New York -- both came with Mauer behind the plate.

Meanwhile, Francisco Liriano didn't seem to have any issues throwing to Mauer on Monday night or during his stellar outing against the White Sox just after the All-Star break. Nor did Kevin Slowey seem to be limited by Mauer's presence when he hurled six innings of one-run ball on Monday night.

Indeed, differences between Butera's and Mauer's game-calling ability seem mostly anecdotal and reactionary, especially considering that Mauer has won Gold Gloves in both of the past two seasons and has often been lauded for his work behind the plate in the past. If a difference between the two exists, it doesn't come close to making up for the gargantuan offensive drop-off that the Twins experience when Butera is in the lineup.

Of course, the Twins have still been playing pretty well lately, owing largely to some fairly pitiful competition. Indeed, it could be that Ron Gardenhire is taking advantage of this soft spot in the Twins' schedule to get the banged-up Mauer some much needed rest in preparation for the stretch run. Perhaps the catcher's offensive outburst on Tuesday night reflects that the rest is paying off. If that's the case, I take my hat off to Gardy, who may be employing a brilliant managerial strategy.

However, if he truly believes that the Twins are ever a better team with Butera in the lineup and Mauer at DH, he's loony. Mauer loses a great deal of his value when he's playing at DH, particularly when his back-up hits like a pitcher. If this trend of more frequently using Mauer in the designated hitter spot continues through the rest of the season, the Twins could be in some trouble.

My suspicion, though, is that all this rhetoric from the Twins' coaches about Butera's great chemistry with the pitchers is mostly a front, and that the team doesn't want to admit that their newly re-signed star player is badly in need of some additional time away from catching duties. If that's the case, I have no problem with Mauer getting a little extra rest so that he'll be more effective when the Twins get back to playing legitimate clubs.

I just wish that the answer wasn't playing the league's worst-hitting position player nearly half the time. How about some starts behind the plate for Jose Morales?

26 comments:

Doc
said...

I 100% agree. Last night the announcers wouldn't stop talking about past pitchers who used personal catchers. The thought of Butera being Pavano's personal catcher for the rest of the year (especially if it were for a playoff game) is awful.

I partially agree....Butera has hit better since being used a bit more plus it also makes a difference if he is not in the line up with light hitting Punto. Remember when we had Brendan Harris on the BL roster just a short time ago. There were games that Harris, Punto & Butera were on the field at the same time when Hardy & O Hud were on the DL previously. After the All Star break we were in desperate need of getting on anything that resembled a pitching roll and if that included teaming Butera with Pavano great. Even if it is against a string of last place opponents. Remember that is how the White Sox got on a roll about a month ago as well. There is something to be said about building some confidence.

I think that this is primarily to give Mauer rest. I like to think Gardy regards Mauer as a better player at the catcher position than Drew Butera. I also have a feeling that Gardy regards Kubel and Thome as better hitters. Just a hunch.

But just to play devil's advocate here...we have dominated the games Drew has played recently. Dominated the heck outta dem.

i do think butera has improved offensively since he has been used more. maybe this is to also see if he has anything offensively that he can contribute. he seems to have a lot more confidence now. if gardy is trying to get mauer some rest and butera more at bats and confidence against the weak teams, then will go back to the regular rotation, it is one of the smartest things he will have done. that's why i don't hold out too much hope for that being the case.

I just hope that come August 31, that if Ramos is still with the Twins, that he is put on the 25 man roster and Butera is taken off. It is a priority that Ramos is on the playoff roster over Butera. Having Ramos' bat on the bench is imperative for the playoffs over the weak-hitting Butera. And Ramos' defense is close to Butera's. The main reason we sent Ramos down was to get everyday experience. That doesn't apply during the post-season.

Butera's gotten a few hits against bad pitchers, which I'm sure has encouraged Gardy's decision to use him more. Unfortunately, it's a trend that won't continue. Put Butera against average or better MLB pitching and he'll revert to the out-machine he's been his entire career, and his defensive ability isn't so stellar that the trade-off is worth keeping Thome's bat out of the lineup.

It would be an even bigger case of managerial malpractice if Butera keeps getting additional run when Morneau comes back.

It's really hard to know what Gardy's doing, since he's rarely clear about his strategy. He may be trying to get Mauer more rest, but this public claim of wanting butera to get more PT doesn't do much to protect his player. And based on some of his moves in the past, it's sadly reasonable for people to think he wants Butera's glove behind the plate and doesn't care about his bat.

Interestingly, Gardy may be pushed into giving Valencia more time for equally iffy reasons. Now, I do think Valencia's a decent hitter and a better bet than Punto right now, but he's also gotten fat on some poor pitching. But he's got a better track record as a hitter and deserves to get a real shot as the every day 3B for the Twins, especially while Hudson is out and twins need to fill at 2B (where gardy can play his favoritest gritty grit grit player evah!).

I agree with your post. Some of the others here, think Puketera is batting better now that he is playing more. Sure, fine...

Yeah, from .133 to .180. Great, congrats. What an embarrassment.

I also agree with you that who knows what Gardy is doing. He tries to play the media a bit.

For instance, last night he said Cuddy was the team MVP. Why, because he played 3rd (badly) while Danny V sat on the bench? Because he can play first and get mostly meaningless hits (except for last night)?

Eh, I'm willing to bet about anything Gardy knows his lineup is better with Kubel/Thome rather than Butera.

But I also think its wrong to automatically label reasons like good chemistry, feeling good, etc. as excuses. Those things can be legitimate. I also do not think picking out who is going to play each day is as easy as looking at who has the highest hitting stats. But you make a good point Nick--if Butera is feeling good, people are liking him, and Mauer needs a break, Gardy is making a good move here. During the slump before the break, I really believe this team was lacking a spark or more good/exciting chemistry, so maybe if Butera's attitude is helping out with that, it's a good thing?

Meanwhile, I disagree with some of what you said. There's no doubt that substituting Thome or Kubel with Butera is a great drop-off offensively.

However, if it's a matter of playing Morales or Butera, I'd much rather have Butera. I'll admit that the game-calling is anecdotal, but there can't be any doubt that Butera is superior defensively to Morales. Last year, Morales threw out about 5% of base stealers (his "gaudy" CS% was aided by a ton of pickoffs), while Butera is at nearly 50% this year.

I know that Morales has the batting average, but it's almost entirely singles. Butera so far has a career ISO (.110) that's double of Morales' career ISO (.056), so while it's still below average, Butera does have a little pop in his bat.

As long as the offense keeps clicking, trotting Butera to the catcher's box isn't going to hurt the team much. It's when the whole team starts to cool down that it will become a problem.

As long as the offense keeps clicking, trotting Butera to the catcher's box isn't going to hurt the team much. It's when the whole team starts to cool down that it will become a problem.

I don't think you're really disagreeing with me then. If Gardenhire's plan is to get Mauer back into regular catching duties once this hot streak against crappy teams comes to an end, I think it's a smart move. If this is a long-term plan, though, it could be disastrous.

As for Morales, if the guy can't catch he shouldn't be on the roster, period. He's not a good enough hitter to be used as DH and there are better pinch-hitting options around. (Like maybe someone with a modicum of power.)

I do disagree when you said that you'd rather have Morales playing than Butera. Certainly Mauer is my preference in the starting lineup, though.

I didn't really say I'd always rather have Morales playing than Butera, just that I don't think Butera should be starting every time Mauer gets a day off from catching.

Certainly it makes sense to have Butera behind the plate on certain days that Mauer has off, like when Pavano is pitching (since teams would run wild on the base paths against a Pavano/Morales pairing). But you are really understating the offensive chasm between Butera and Morales, Bryz. You can ignore the giant gap in their major-league numbers since the sample size is so small, but Butera has a .214 batting average and .613 OPS over his career in the minors. Morales is a .288 hitter with a .727 OPS for his MiLB career.

Every time you start Butera, it's basically like you're fielding a National League lineup because the kid truly does hit like a pitcher.

Butera and Punto both hit like pitchers. I get that Butera carries value by giving Mauer a break from catching duties every few days. But why on earth does Punto remain an everyday player when we have better offensive and defensive options all around the infield (Especially with Valencia's performance as of late). If they sign Punto to another 4 mill per year contract and not sign Pavano this off season, I will lose it. Punto must have saved Gardy's life at some point in time and Gardy's way of repaying him is by not only letting him be in the majors but starting him on a regular basis.

"I just wish that the answer wasn't playing the league's worst-hitting position player nearly half the time. How about some starts behind the plate for Jose Morales?"

Makes sense to me, particularly IF stats is the criteria rather than WINS.

Since, at least to me, this issue of Butera's being the preference of certain starters is of fairly recent vintage, I looked back to Butera's starts since July 1, 2010. The Twins and Baker lost on July 8...July 11 (Pavano); July 17 (Pavano); July 21 (Liriano); July 22 (Pavano); July 25 (Slowey) and July 27 (Pavano) were ALL WINS. Butera was 0-9 in the 1st 3 games, 6-18 in last 4 games, and .222 for the month.

That's a .857 win rate, that MUST obviously be corrected for. Damn the WINS, go for a player with superior personal stats. WINS are vastly overated apparently.

I gamble every day, there is a saying "The trend is your friend...AND the trend WILL change", that's the time to adjust, NOT while the trend is continuing. It may already be over, OR it may continue for a week or two, or maybe longer.

During those 7 games, Baker/Burnett/Mahay gave up 8 runs, in the other 6 games the Pitchers gave up 11 runs (3 by Blackburn in the 9th on Sunday). I realize, allowing less than 2 runs a game is UNEXCEPTABLE! Let's stop that abominable trend before it continues.

Yes, I am being sarcastic (It seems rather appropriate). Rather than worry about a problem that does not currently exist, (I do realize it will be impossible for you to just sit back and enjoy what's happening), UNTIL there is an actual problem to solve.

Not sure why everyone is over thinking this. Butera is not a better catcher than either Morales or Mauer. This is why he shouldn't be an everyday starter. Its hard to correlate Buter's win percentage for the simple reason we are finally playing like we should, like this team is capable. Why should Butera get credit for that instead of something else. P.S. Slowey and Baker were able to perform with Mauer behind the plate last year so if those bums need Butera behind the plate then it is a failure of themselves and not another catcher. Let's see if having Buteras bat is enough against the Yankees who actualy score runs. It won't be.

"P.S. Slowey and Baker were able to perform with Mauer behind the plate last year so if those bums need Butera behind the plate then it is a failure of themselves and not another catcher. Let's see if having Buteras bat is enough against the Yankees who actualy score runs. It won't be."

I don't think I said Butera IS/WAS/WILL BE a better catcher OR hitter than Mauer.

My point was fairly precise...IF Pavano wants to pitch to Butera, AND the results are positive, I don't really care IF Pavano is mentally defective as long as the result is a WIN!!!

In recent games, Slowey seemed to be much more frustrated with Mauers game calling. Slowey has not been particularly good this year, IF he thinks a VOODOO ceremony on his glove and ball will help, I'll import the best VOODOO Priest (IF there is such a thing) to conduct that ceremony. Whatever, things are/were not well with Slowey, he's probably mentally defective as well. IF pitching to Butera gets Slowey on a roll, I'M all for it, since Mauer can always DH.

Mauer must have some injury issues, and while the team is going good, if he has less stress and heal, I see that as a positive.